Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1887-04-08

started up his reluctant pony.
81 tell you what it is, Jem," said a
little Irishman. in confidence, t.inanc
ally, that's the worst little horse / ever
see."
"SheH go like thunder when she
gets started,'' protested the boy, much
hurt. It was by no means a pony to
brag of, but being his only article of
property, he could not afford to laugh
very heartily at such sallies.
He himself was nothing extra to look
at, if youcame to that. A long, thin
figure, clad in the rustic's coarse gar
ments; a broad felt hat concealing his
brown hair and tapping over his tim,
face-a face fairly distgured with great
freckles, but lit by a pair of gray eyes
alive with boyish love of excitement.
Jim Rowell was not a bad fellow, but
the delight, the rapture of bounding
over the prairie in company and on
horseback was always too strong a
temptation for his prudent resolves.
A ride, a long, swift, glorious ride
over sandy levels; between brown
bluffs; past an occasional farmhouse,
where stacks stand yellow and tall;
through rafting skeletons of thickets
ard shallow sweeps of water; up, down
and across, until the patriarch of the
herds starts up before them. The
cattle he has been lying among scatter
out lazily, but old Abe meets his foe
with the glare of a gladiator.
A fierce brute he is, and strong.
Look at his wide horns, circled with
the rings of many years; at the power
full muscles showing beneath his tawny
hide, and the long limbs that have
crushed through many a strong in
closure. Nothing about him tells of
ownership; there. is neither cut on his
ears nor scar on his hide. No round
up could gather him in, nor corral
secure him; therefore, a convention
of "cow p%nnchers" suggested general
action against the outlaw, and the
words were uttered at a time when any
! diversion vas welcome. To mortals
condemned to the endless solitude and
soul-wearying monotony of those vast
level plains, the time must come when
ever a scrape, is hailed with glad
relief.
"Thar he is, boys!' shouts Tom
jenkins. THAR! Ketch him and he's
your'n!"
"a devils prize at the best; but here
goes" muttered Thompson, pushing
forward with the boy beside him.
Hi! The dogs are at him, with banks
that become yelps as the brindle gives
them a taste of his heels. Down the
valley, over the uplands and the dry
creek bottoms, away they 60, in a noisy
a C against the crisp west wind, g
tornado of Gathering hoofs, jingling
spurs, and loose trappings. The sun
beats hot upon them, the dust flies up
from the plain. One by one the dogs
sneak off to the rear, the ponies flag
yet old Abe is as fresh for a break of a
mile or so, as ready for a savage dash
at a timid horse or rider.
''Give it up! He amt with it!' cry
the weaker spirits, drawing rein upon
hill, the defiant brute eying them from
a safe distance. "Do ez you please"
growled Long Jack, '.but eff you fellers
quit I won't that's all"
::Neither will l." put in Jimmy, look
ing foolish, as a laugh was raised at his
expense.
The devil you won'tr' retorted the
other. because a square look at YOU
would scare him to death anyday." He
turned away, glad to have avenged his
formerdefeat. T~hatreadiness oftongue
which Others laughed at and passed
over in the boy anggered the herder I'M
accountably. Besides, he felt sore at
the failure of his boast to capture the
prize in an hour.
':Come on, boys" proposed jenkins.
''My camps just around the bend. If
we can run him into the big stone cor
raj we've got him, sure; if not, let's
stop and take a fresh start in the morn
ing"
"An right" chorused the others.
"Look yere, Jimmy" said Al Thomp-
son, as their two horses trotted down
the slope together, "you jes' take my.
advice an let Jake alone. It'sprecious
easy to git him hot, an, they say he
killed a man down on the Divide"
80, give us a rest, I amt afraid.
Why does he keep trying to rile me all
the time just because Pm a boy. It's
too mean
go ahead; then. You're pretty
smart, Jim Rowell, but I tell you it don't
do no Teller good to be too, smart;
mebbe you'll find it out some day."
The second chase proved no more
successful than the first. Cunning Old
Abe put in his ..best ticks" for their en-
lightenment, and when they gave it up
still seemed unwearied. Tom sprang
from his horse to do the honors of his
residence.
"'Light, gentlemen, light and make
yourselves at home. Things is a little
out of order, consequent on the missus
not having got back from Saratogy, but
you'll find the mornin' papers in the
hb'ry. The key of the ~pianer's on the
bureau in my dressin' room. Eff you
like, take turns in admirin' the scenery,
the long shadders of the chickens fallin'
to the east ard. an the kingly rooster
as he glides forth from the barn. :
The mansion whoco hoopifo1;fu moe